Unaware of how much time they had lost, Kael and his companions trudged forward, following the faint remnants of their original path. The fog in their minds had lifted, but a sense of unease still clung to them.
They moved in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, trying to reconcile the vivid peace they had felt under the cursed tree with the reality of the decay they had just witnessed.
What none of them realized was that their time within the enchantment had not been measured in days or weeks—it had been months. The spell they had fallen under had stretched time, and while they believed only hours had passed, the rest of the world had moved on without them.
Far away from the cursed forest, in the heart of the kingdom, Commander Rasputin stood before a council of nobles and advisors. His face was stern, worn by the weight of his decision. He had led a squadron deep into the forest months ago, hoping to root out the strange magic that had begun to spill from its depths. But the losses had been staggering, and every attempt to retrieve Kael's party or discover the source of the corruption had ended in failure.
In the end, the commander had made the only choice he could. He had pulled his forces back, retreating to the safety of the kingdom's borders. Before the council, he declared the forest a death zone—a cursed place where men went to die, and where the land itself seemed to hunger for life.
"We've lost too many good soldiers in that forest," Rasputin said, his voice firm. "It's not worth any more lives. Whatever evil festers there, it's beyond us. We need to protect what remains."
The council members murmured their agreement. Plans were drawn, and soon, orders were sent across the kingdom to build a perimeter around the cursed forest. Soldiers were stationed at its edges, their task not to enter but to ensure that nothing from within crossed the border.
As Rasputin turned away from the council chambers, he couldn't shake the feeling that retreating had been the right call, but something still gnawed at him. Kael's party had been one of the best—if they had fallen to whatever magic lurked in the forest, what chance did anyone else have?
Back in the forest, Kael and his companions pressed forward, unaware of the time they had lost or the decisions that had been made in their absence. They did not know that their home had already given up on them, that the battle they had been sent to fight had long since been declared lost.
And yet, as they moved deeper into the forest, something strange pulsed beneath the earth, calling to them still. They might have escaped one trap, but the forest had more to offer. More secrets, more dangers, and perhaps, more answers.